• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Within the first 29 days this year, General Petraeus ordered 284 sorties into Afghanistan. NATO aircraft make about 10 bombing missions a day—double the amount of aircraft sent last January. January marks the beginning of the tenth year that coalition forces have spent in the country attempting to oust the Taliban and establish a democratic state – it is the longest war the U.S. has ever officially waged. A new play called Shadow Anthropology: A Post 9/11 Comedy by playwright Rick Mitchell, is set in rural Afghanistan and follows a young anthropologist charged with the task of interviewing Afghans as part of the U.S.’ so-called “Human Terrain Project.” She is flanked by her partner, a well-paid operative addicted to cocaine, heroin and Viagra, who must solve the murder of an Afghan farmer who had promised his headstrong, ambitious daughter into marriage with his elderly, lecherous uncle before his untimely death. The play attempts to encapsulate the experience of rural Afghans caught in the middle of the war and the futile efforts of anthropologists sent to understand their experiences. Using shadow puppets and musical numbers, this darkly humorous ensemble piece critiques American efforts to win over the “hearts and minds” of the Afghan people even as they fight the war. Shadow Anthropology is part of the first annual Company Creation Festival at the Son of Semele Theater, 3301 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles.

GUESTS: Rick Mitchell, writer and director of Shadow Anthropology, Professor & Creative Writing Advisor in the Department of English at California State University, Northridge, Lymari Nadal and Claudia Vazquez, actresses

The play is running for five more performances (through February 25th), as part of the Company Creation Festival at Son of Semele Theater, 3301 Beverly Blvd. (on the corner of Hoover), in Los Angeles. For further information an to purchase tickets, please visit the theater’s website, www.sonofsemele.org, or call 323) 841-9151.